Men’s basketball beats Mt. St. Mary’s on the road

Binghamton (2-6) shot 68 percent in the second half and put four in double figures to register a 74-70 road victory over Mt. St. Mary’s (2-7) in a men’s basketball game Dec. 4 from Knott Arena in Emmitsbug, Md.

Freshman guard Marlon Beck scored a team-high 19 points and classmate Yosef Yacob sank 6-of-6 free throws in the final 39 seconds as the Bearcats withstood heavy pressure from the host Mountaineers, who closed a 19-point deficit to two in the closing seconds.

A 17-5 Mount run brought them back in the game in the final minutes, but Binghamton made 8-of-10 from the line to hang on. Yacob’s final two free throws with exactly one second left sealed the win.

“That was a heck of a win over a good veteran team,” head coach Tommy Dempsey said. “Our kids stepped up … they’re really resilient. I’m proud that after getting blown out on Sunday … to see us pick ourselves back up like this. Our fans should believe in these kids … they have such mental toughness. It’s not easy but we got back to work and that’s why we won tonight. It was going to come down to energy and togetherness and both were there tonight. Even when they were making their run, we were positive and had a collective will to win tonight.”

Yacob scored 15 of his season-high 18 points in the second half and freshman forward Nick Madray tallied 10 of his 12 points in the final frame. Madray grabbed a season-high 10 rebounds to post his first collegiate double-double. Sophomore guard Jordan Reed wound up with 17 points, eight rebounds and two steals. Reed was slick down the stretch, too, with a no-look pass to Beck for a lay-in with 1:52 left and an acrobatic alley-oop dunk with 58 seconds left off a great feed from Yacob.

In the first half, Binghamton used a 24-4 run to seize control. Trailing 13-6 halfway through the period, the Bearcats held Mt. St. Mary’s without a field goal for more than eight minutes and four three-pointers spun the momentum in Binghamton’s favor as they grabbed a 30-20 lead at the break. Reed opened the game with a putback jam and his nine points led the first-half charge. Beck hit two threes in a 41:53 span and netted eight points in the opening period. After hitting just 3-of-13 to start the game, the Bearcats finished by making 7-of-12. Binghamton also hit the boards, outrebounding the Mount 23-12 in the first 20 minutes.